A multi-million-pound helipad will not be ready to use this year amid concerns landing helicopters could blow out windows at a Brighton hospital.

University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust said further tests are needed on a number of window fixings across the top two floors of the Royal Sussex County Hospital’s Thomas Kemp Tower, where the helipad is located, to “ensure their integrity”.

It follows a structural survey of the external windows of the 15-storey tower.

The Argus understands the testing is due to be completed by the end of this year.

The £14 million landing pad was originally supposed to open in 2019 but it was feared helicopters could destroy the cladding on the building.

The trust told The Argus that this cladding was fixed last September but there was still “minor construction work” to be done on the roof.

The helipad has faced several delaysThe helipad has faced several delays (Image: UHSussex)

Repairs to allow the pad, which sits above the Trevor Mann Baby unit, to open began in February last year, some four years after the cladding fault was discovered.

Once work is eventually completed on the helipad, The Civil Aviation Authority still needs to give its approval and then trial landings can begin.

The UHSussex spokeswoman said: “We acknowledge that there have been significant delays in bringing the helipad into use and understand the disappointment this is causing. However, our commitment remains to open the facility as soon as it is safe to do so. 

“Further structural survey work is being undertaken on the Thomas Kemp Tower, and we will work to confirm a new operational date after this work has been completed.”

Air ambulances carrying patients are still landing at East Brighton Park around a mile away where they are then taken the rest of the way by road ambulance.

Dr Rob Haigh, chief medical officer for University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, said in March last year: “Being able to bring some of the most unwell and severely injured patients to the centre of the hospital by air ambulance has been a long-term goal but the constrained nature of the site made this impossible until this point.

"As part of the redevelopment of the hospital, we can bring the helideck into use and provide a direct route for patients brought in by air ambulance to reach the services they need more quickly.”